CLARK GREGG, JASON O'MARASimmons gets sent off on a mission so secret she’s not even allowed to see her way there. Director Mace suspects that Coulson and co aren’t being 100% honest with him. Robbie is forced to confront his past in a painful way and Helen may have bitten off more than she can chew with the Darkhold…

There’s a slightly disjointed feel to this instalment of SHIELD as we get an episode which uses a bunch of flashbacks, vaguely dated as ‘back in the day’ to introduce or reinforce plot points in the present. This, combined with the scattered nature of the team and the events that are unfolding, lends to a feeling of not really being sure what is going on, bringing the viewer to exactly where the players on the screen are. It’s clever stuff, delivering a large amount of info without feeling info-dumpy.

Starting with a flashback showing Uncle Eli working with Helen, Joe and the others at Momentum labs, we get a glimpse of how detached Joe had become from the other following the discovery of the Darkhold, and also our first concrete idea of what the team had actually been working towards (spoiler alert: not actually dark deeds of world domination). This is refreshing in several ways – finally we start to build the picture behind the events that led us to where we are, and also we get a motivation that wasn’t entirely selfish, reinforcing the idea of the corrupting influence of the Darkhold. The scene then flips to the Momentum lab in the present, May and team on site with cameras relaying back to Fitz on the Zephyr as they try to work out what’s missing and whether there might be any indications as to where Eli and Helen have gone with it.

Simmons gets sent off by Mace to do… something. He won’t tell her where or what, and apparently it’s so tip top secret that even she herself doesn’t get to see where she is going, let alone know. Her cutoff of Mace in one of his signature platitudes is excellently delivered – Simmons is not going to be quietly pushed around, and she is letting people know it. Mace then flies off to intercept the Zephyr with a team, demanding that Phil stand down and hand over the fugitives Daisy and Robbie to face justice. Coulson plays dumb, but inevitably there are only so many places on a plane to hide three people (Robbie’s younger brother Gabe having been picked up on the way for his own safety). As the three hide, Robbie is forced to confess his true nature to Gabe, leading to another flashback of the night referenced in the previous episode when Robbie and Gabe were attacked and Gabe was bound to a wheelchair. Turns out that wasn’t the only significant event that night… It’s a great piece of backstory, and leaves us with plenty of possibilities for the character going forward.

The mission to rescue Eli eventually takes on a whole new bent and impetus and we are left with the kind of cliffhanger ending that leaves you desperately counting down the seconds until the next episode arrives. No sting here – that tantalising last shot of the episode is all that you get, and fittingly for SHIELD, we end an episode full of revelation and backstory with many more questions than we came in with.

Verdict: Compact and focused (in spite of the numerous flashbacks), this is a barnstormer of an episode in which several people get to shine. The main interest, as ever, remains Robbie. His power is now undeniable in comparison to anyone else around him, and like it or not, Mace may just have to make a deal with this particular devil… 9/10

Greg D. Smith

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